FBI: Violent crime rate sinks to 41-year low in Bay State

FRAMINGHAM — After peaking in the early 1990s, the violent crime rate has dropped by more than half in the Bay State, falling last year to its lowest level since 1974, according to FBI data.

Statistics released earlier this year show the rate of violent offenses reported to law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts declined once again in 2015, the most recent year for which data was available, continuing a steep slide that has characterized crime patterns for much of the last two decades.

Police in Massachusetts documented 26,562 reports of violent crimes in 2015, including offenses such as murder, manslaughter, assault and rape.

While that number was about equal to the previous year, the state's population is believed to have increased, pushing down the per capita crime rate.

The FBI estimates that about 391 out of every 100,000 people in the state was the victim of a violent crime in 2015. That number is down a small fraction from the previous year, and well below the most recent peak in 2006.

Property crime has also plummeted. While more than 4,000 out of every 100,000 people living in the state were victims of burglary or theft each year during the 1980s and early 1990s, the number fell to less than 1,700 last year. The state’s property crime rate now stands at its lowest level since 1963, according to FBI records.

In MetroWest, many towns were near the bottom of the list in terms of the level of crime reported last year, though the FBI cautions against using its data to rank one community against another.

Wayland documented only half a dozen incidents, according to the FBI’s records, which come from crime data reported by police in 264 communities and at college campuses across the state. Sudbury and Holliston reported fewer than 100 violent crimes and property crimes, while Hopkinton recorded only 53 — none of them violent.

"We've been voted one of the safest communities in the state and in the country, or right up there,” Hopkinton Police Chief Edward Lee said.

Lee, who has worked in law enforcement for nearly 30 years, said crime trends have influenced policing throughout his career.

When he first began patrolling the streets in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in the late 1980s, Lee said crime was continuing to rise, and police focused on “law and order,” working in particular to put drug dealers behind bars.

As time went by, law enforcement shifted toward community policing — making police officers visible in the community and breaking down barriers with the public.

While the threat of terrorism became a major focus after 2001, Lee said he believes the pendulum is swinging back toward working within the community. A decrease in violent crime also means the department can focus on areas such as traffic safety, educating seniors about scams and teaching children to be safe.

“A lot of the stuff that we do is prevention,” Lee said, “so even though there's not violent crime or burglaries or things of that nature, we try to do the best we can to educate the public."

Police in Massachusetts retooled in response to the state’s ongoing heroin and prescription painkiller epidemic. In Hopkinton and other communities, officers are trained to administer life-saving overdose reversal drugs — a skill that wasn’t part of the job in the 1980s and 1990s.

"Even though it's Hopkinton, we still get our share of heroin overdoses,” Lee said. “It's like any other community. We've also seen the spike in that."

Nationwide, police documented about 1.2 million violent crimes last year — up about 3.9 percent from the year before, but still beneath the violent crime totals reported in 2011 and 2006, according to the FBI.

Announcing the new statistics earlier this year, the bureau also released the following findings:

There were an estimated 327,374 robberies nationwide, which accounted for an estimated $390 million in losses (average dollar value of stolen property per reported robbery was $1,190).Firearms were used in 71.5 percent of the nation’s murders, 40.8 percent of robberies, and 24.2 percent of aggravated assaults.Property crimes resulted in losses estimated at $14.3 billion. The total value of reported stolen property was $12,420,364,454.

Offenses reported to police in 2015

Jim Haddadin can be reached at 617-863-7144 or jhaddadin@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JimHaddadin.